Artist Kehinde Wiley puts power in a new frame with paintings of African leaders

RABAT – American artist Kehinde Wiley unveiled a bid of large-format portraits of African leaders successful Morocco connected Tuesday, gathering connected his present celebrated 2018 representation of erstwhile U.S. President Barack Obama sitting casually amid a chaotic cascade of leaves and flowers.

His exhibition, entitled “A Maze of Power,” opened astatine the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art successful Rabat, Morocco’s capital, aft antecedently showing successful Paris and Dakar, Senegal.

The artwork borrows from classical easel coating techniques, posing African leaders successful a benignant chiefly associated with European royalty and aristocracy.

“What I wanted to bash was to gully ideas in, to beryllium capable to look astatine the depiction of power, some beautifully and problematically,” Wiley said.

In 1 portrait, Ethiopia’s erstwhile president, Sahle-Work Zewde, stands earlier a window, her nation’s bustling superior stretching down her arsenic her manus clasps a dangling flower.

In another, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, erstwhile president of Madagascar, is depicted sitting confidently astride a horse. And Alassane Ouattara, president of Ivory Coast, is seen clenching his brow arsenic helium grips a sword successful his close hand.

“I was reasoning astir the presidency astatine ample arsenic a symbol, arsenic a spot of power,” Wiley told The Associated Press astatine the opening of his exhibition.

“A Maze of Power” arrived successful Morocco 7 months aft archetypal showing astatine Paris’ Musée du Quai Branly — Jacques Chirac. It's portion of the Moroccan museum's efforts to go a hub for African creation up of the adjacent year's opening of the Museum of the African Continent, crossed the thoroughfare successful Rabat.

Wiley said that aft his Obama portrait, helium was capable to leverage his connections to summation audiences with leaders from crossed Africa and transportation them to beryllium for him.

In summation to Obama’s, the portraits besides echo Wiley’s earlier works, successful which young Black men look successful poses astir associated with paintings of kings and generals.

Showing his would-be subjects a publication afloat of classical paintings to gully inspiration from, Wiley said helium prepares for coating by taking hundreds of photographs of each person and past placing them successful settings some existent and abstract.

Although helium wanted to amusement governmental power, the leaders' idiosyncratic governmental choices were not applicable to the series, Wiley said.

The leaders depicted see immoderate marred by corruption scandals and others who ignored statesmanlike word limits and repressed protestors. There are besides 2 whose militaries are fighting each different successful eastbound Congo: Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi.

Though Wiley said the relation of immoderate creation tin beryllium to shed airy connected those affected by governmental decision-making, his goals were different.

“This task is much astir pulling mode backmost and having a benignant of bird’s-eye presumption astatine the phenomena of the governmental representation itself,” helium said.

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